Newton brought a certain clarity to physics. Perhaps that clarity was its own undoing, because with better tools, that classical Newtonian clockwork universe began to fall apart. In another episode of The Day The Universe Changed, entitled Making Waves, we learn about the problems with Newtonian physics, and just why Einstein's new relative physics was so important:

Chaos theory is actually quite a bit more substantive than that. It's about examining dynamic processes that are highly affected by their initial conditions, and the great effects even the most minor conditions can have on these processes.

This is an excellent framework for the strange new world in which we find ourselves, and for examining how it unfolds.

As you read this, you're taking advantage of one of the results of iteration, feedback, and change - the internet!

As a user of the internet, you're already better equipped to understand the potential power and effects of chaos theory than anyone who lived before you. The internet was designed as a system that could remain functional by dynamically routing around physical damage. That basic design philosophy has remained as a basis, but grown into a system that works around any kind of damage.

In what I think of as one of the more underrated stories of 2011, Twitter provided a wonderful example of this. Canada has a ban on transmitting election results to a wide audience before all the country's polls are closed. However, since you can read tweets from anywhere in the world at any given time, this law proved to be of little concern. Canadians with knowledge of election results simply e-mailed what they knew to people from other countries, where that knowledge was tweeted without worry for consequence for anyone to read, anywhere in the world (especially in Canada).

I hope you've enjoyed this series, and that it gives you food for thought. If you've learned anything from this series, or have any insights you'd like to share, I'd love to hear about it in the comments!